This is an election year. Politics will be center stage throughout the year, even more so than they are every day. The primary voting season is upon us and candidates on both sides of the political spectrum will soon be pleading for votes. Despite your knowledge of any of the candidates, you would recognize them as a member of one of two political parties by simply waving a banner with an animal image – either a donkey or an elephant. How did these two animals become the symbols for the two major political parties? Did the Democrats take a caucus vote and decide they would be represented by a donkey? Did the Republicans hire an advertising agency to design an elephant to represent their party?

These images are actually the work of one man; Thomas Nast. Nast was a pioneer in editorial cartooning, with the bulk of his work coming for the highly read Harper’s Weekly. Nast, who was a German immigrant and a passionate defender of human rights, dropped out of school at age 14. When he was 18, he began working for Harper’s. Although there is some speculation as to what images were Nast’s original thoughts, his artwork certainly popularized the Democrat Donkey, the Republican Elephant, as well as the whiskered Uncle Sam and the bowl-full-of-jelly Santa Claus. Interestingly enough, Nast’s political illustrations were dripping with satire. His elephant and donkey depictions of the two political parties were not flattering – quite the opposite. Yet, they struck a chord with the voters and have been used for over 150 years.

Regardless of your political leanings, one thing is for certain: the illustrations Nast drew had lasting power. Is the same true of the images you use in marketing? The design you choose as your logo, the photos on your website, the artwork you use on your brochures, and all of the other visuals you use to market your business make up your brand. A brand is to represent your company, your products, or your services. It has one overarching job: it is to convey all that you stand for at a glance. If you are a political candidate and you come knocking on my door wearing a donkey lapel pin, I will make an immediate judgment about you. Likewise, if you come to my door wearing an elephant lapel pin, I will make other assumptions about you. The image is so powerful, I will either like you or reject you before you can get a word out of your mouth and shake my hand – all based on the animal image on your lapel pin. The same should be true of your brand images.

Here is a little test. Take your logo and put it with the logos of your competitors. Place each one on a separate card and ask someone who knows nothing about your company to look at the cards. Ask them to quickly sort them and pull out the ones that look like a company (or product/service) that has credibility. Now, take the image off the home page of your website along with your competitors front page images and do the same test, only ask them to tell you what each company produces and which has the highest quality. If you have packaging or brochures or any other collateral marketing materials that are conveying your brand visually, give each of them the same test. Ask your person to sort out the images that convey the market leader for the branded products and services. You may be thinking, "How absurd! You cannot figure out key selling points such as credibility, product quality, and market leadership by just looking at an image for a split second.” You may be surprised that, at a glance, those decisions are made, either consciously or unconsciously, whether you like it or not. That is how your potential customers are looking at you!

How powerful are your images? Are they conveying the message you want to send to your target market? If not, make a change. Rebrand, refresh, and reignite the imagination of your consumers.

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"The Elephant Walks Around" - And The "Still Hunt" Is Nearly Over on the left and A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion on the right, were both classic editorial cartoons published in Harper’s Weekly by Thomas Nast.